'Lil Pumpkin Head

Annabelle was thrilled to get the mail yesterday, because she had a present from Ms. Carol in "'Tucky!" She walked up and down the sidewalk saying "My present, my present..." After a few minutes she sat down on the curb and finally asked to open it. She pulled it out and immediately put it on. It was a VERY blustery day and she was so excited that when she put the hat on, her hair no longer was blowing in her face!! What a concept! Yes, just like she does with the rain and the sunshine, she kindly tells God "No blowing, please!" when it is windy. Thanks Carol for brightening our day and thinking of our little girl!

"Hi Carol"

"Cheeseburger. "Maybe someday when she smiles she won't do it so goofily!

Pure joy!!

Fall Festivities

Well, Annabelle and I are at my parent's house for the night, so I have a chance to update you on our life. The geeky Social Studies teacher in me couldn't stand the thought of not watching all of the election results come in tonight. I'll probable watch it into the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully it's only every 4 years! It's so exciting to watch the states get colored in and count up the electoral college votes! (Thankfully since we only get one channel (PBS) at home we have been exempt from all of the political commercials and bantering!)

Fall has certainly been an enjoyable time for us. We don't have trees in our yard yet so thankfully it hasn't meant raking leaves. Instead we have just enjoyed all of the beautiful trees around us. It is sweet to see Annabelle get so excited about all of the colors she sees. "Red, yellow, orange!" It has been nice to enjoy the weather by taking walks, going to pick apples and pumpkins, looking at the moon and twinkle stars at night and playing with "messy" toys on the front porch. We enjoyed our churches trunk or treat the night before Halloween and then we had a good time going trick or treating in my parents neighborhood. We learned that in Godfrey people don't trick or treat on Halloween, just the night before. On Halloween there is one of the largest Halloween parades in the U.S. Who knew? Annabelle was overjoyed with all of the candy she got and was certainly not shy about walking up to people's doors to get more candy. We learned that she doesn't like clowns at all. They are "Scary and make Annabelle sad and cry." She enjoyed wearing her costume (a hippie) and she loved telling people that hippies say "Peace, Man!" She couldn't quite get the peace sign down with her hands so it looked more like the "L" for loser" sign! Oh well. God is so good to us and we continue to thank him for his blessings. A big blessing to us is that Joe's grandma and my granny are still with us. They have both been through quite a lot, but for now God still has them here to bless us. We love them very much.

Annabelle has enjoyed Nana and Poppa's Backyard this fall. Here she is eating a scrumptious chicken nugget dinner while telling Miles "Shh...no barking!"

Annabelle sliding into a pile of crunchy leaves Nana raked up for her. Thankfully there are lots of leaves for her to run through at Nana's house!

This tree looked like it was on fire it was so red!

Annabelle showing off her pumpkin that Gusta Granny painted for her.

"I like this little one!"

Just posing in the corn

What a big girl!

Annabelle painting the pumpkins we picked (and she preceeded to paint her hands and feet, too!)

The finished product! The front's look pretty, but Annabelle wanted to keep the "original"mud on the back sides of the pumpkins.

Our little hippie!

Flower children

Annabelle with her first piece of candy she got from trunk or treat. She was satisfied with just one sucker for about an hour!

"Wow! They have the best candy!" Annabelle had the most fun getting candy from Nana and Poppa's house becasue she got to pick as much as she wanted.

"Thanks for going trick or treating with me, Uncle Brad-a-leee and Aunt Joy!"

Fun times!

Children are such great entertainment! You don't have to leave home and it's free fun! We are thouroughly enjoying our precious little girl who is growing up way too fast! She is well into the "mine" stage and "I do it all myself, please" stage. Who taught her that she was almost 2? We have been seriously potty training for a little over a week and she is doing very well. She likes wearing her big girl panties (except for nap and bedtime! She certainly isn't ready to go diaperless then!) She absoultely loves people...her family especially. In the past week she has gotten to see Uncle Luke and Aunt Ashley, Uncle Brad and Aunt Joy, Nana, Poppa, Gee Gee, Papa and Papa Don. She just loves to be around them all and she gets quite hyped up! She has also picked up on the fact that I call Joe, "Joey" and "Baby doll." So it isn't uncommom for her to be heard yelling through the house "Come here Joey, baby doll!" Thankfully I love my husband and call him nice names! The pictures will show you some of her other fascinating adventures!Enjoy.

Annabelle rediscovered the swaddle blanket from Gusta Granny. It certainly doesn't fit quite like it used to.

Annabelle using the swaddle blanket creatively! She is Mary with baby Jesus.

Annabelle trying to walk in the swaddle blanket. She is so excited to wrap the new baby in the blanket. We practice quite often.

Yes...our daughter is smelling our feet. One night she took all of our socks off and played with our feet for quite sometime! Now if only we could get her to massage our feet.

Annabelle loves to be outside! Her daddy took her up to the park by our house one night for a date!

Annabelle sitting pretty in Aunt Ashley's hat! What a beautiful girl, huh?

"Look at my tongue, mom!" Annabelle was out on the front porch with buddies Sophia and Emma and they were playing with rice! Hey, it's a cheap toy that cleans up easily.

Annabelle loves her daddy! She also likes "case". (an old pillow case from my parent's house) She enjoys trying to walk around the house in it without falling down.

Yet another month gone by!

Well, since we are technologically obsolete at our new house in the country, I have a pretty good excuse why I have not posted in a month! Since we are at my mom and dad's tonight, I thought I would post a few pictures from the past few days. (I don't know why everything is being underlined, but oh well!) I've decided not to stress about updating all of the weeks gone by...we'll just start with now! The Costephens' clan is doing well! We are greatly enjoying our new home and are so blessed by being there. (Pictures will be forthcoming!) Things are going great at church and we are very excited about what God is doing! We are growing to love the people very much. I am enjoying working occasionally at the community college by our house at MBU's extension campus. Joe is actually going to get to be Professor Costephens in January when he starts teaching Old Testament History for Missouri Baptist University at the extension site. We are really excited about that opportunity. Miss Annabelle is keeping us in stitches as she is quite the goofball. She never ceases to amaze us with all she is capable of doing and saying. There is no stopping her! It would take forever to recap all of the Annabelle"isms" of the past month, so I'll just do a few from this week so far. Annabelle has been saying "nope" a l0t and I asked her who taught her to say that and she told me "Noah, God and Jesus told me to say nope." HA! She has also really enjoyed the construction noise surrounding our house. She wakes up in the morning and and announces "Little guys go bang bang at Annabelle's house." She loves to wave at them and tell them to get off of the ladders and roof's because it's dangerous. Thankfully they are quited amused by her. She had become quite used to saying "Miles no barking" while we were living with my mom and dad. So now, whenever Joe coughs, she says "No barking daddy!" Her favorite activities are playing play dough all the time...playing babies, helping mommy bake, and "being crazy!" She is still very excited about the upcoming baby. She asks everyday to open up mommy's belly button! We are so blessed by her sweet spirit and her love for others. She also has started reminding us "All things possible with GOD!" Well, I hope you enjoy a few pictures from our recent adventures!

Annabelle covering Nana with "lil stickies"

Wow, I can hold crackers in my toes!

I made a play dough necklace!

Dang flies keep getting in my playdough!

Cutting playdough is hard work!

What a big girl!

Are they clean yet?




Keaton and Annabelle riding the tractor at Eckart's Orchard

Daddy and his little pumpkin!

This apple is so juicy! Annabelle would eat apples all day if she could! (And she loves to dip them in peanut butter!)

Big Bite!

Annabelle finally got brave enough to let the goats lick her!


Little fugitives!

Mommy, Daddy and Annabelle petting the ponies. Later we saw the sign that says not to pet, because they bite!

Already September!!

Wow...it has been a whole month since I have updated...sorry. Life is going well for us here in St. Louis/Godfrey. My Granny has been very sick and we have been spending time getting to see her in the hospital. It has been a blessing to be close to family. Annabelle just loves getting to go to Gusta's hospital (now Gusta's nursing home!) She also got to see Joe's grandma in the hospital and she is quite good at cheering up people who are feeling pretty yucky! All is well with baby number two. According to the ultrasound the baby is growing well, has all of it's parts and should come sometime late January. We were able to stay strong again and not find out the sex of the baby. We hope Annabelle can be patient and wait a few more months...she has tried to feed my belly button a bottle and she keeps asking if she can hold "little baby." I'll share a few more cute Annabelle accomplishments. She has certainly mastered her colors and now she seems very interested in shapes. She also counts 1-5. She needs to slow down, because if I do end up homeschooling her I don't know what I'll teach her in kindergarten! She is also putting together really good sentences! "Happy Birthday to you mommy!" "Allison made that for me." "Where did the lid go mommy?" She is still very interested in the moon. Whenever she see's it she asks if she can hold it! She knows the answer, because as soon as she asks me she shakes her head "no" and says "it huge!" She has such a sweet heart and many times will be playing and then come over to me and say "Amen Gusta" which is her way of saying we need to stop and pray for Gusta or whomever. The other night we were leaving Brad and Joy's apartment and it was raining very hard and Annabelle was getting quite wet. She looked up at the sky and said "No thank you!" Of course in her mind if you use your manners you get what you want, but unfortunately God doesn't stop the rain just because we ask nicely!
She is also starting to tell people "I love you SO much!" Let's see...we close on our house in two days and are very excited to get to move in and get all of our stuff out of storage. Annabelle loves going to her empty house and dancing on the carpet and hiding in the empty cabinets/closets! Thanks for reading my ramble! I will post pictures tomorrow...I'm heading to bed now!

VBS week

Life with Annabelle sure is fun! Her excitement and energy never cease to amaze us. This past week at church was VBS every night! All Annabelle talked about was "V-B-S!!!" When we got finished every night at 8:30 she would jabber the whole way home about "Jesus born" and "God made moon." "Jesus, bible." How awesome! We thought it would wear her out, but no...she was pumped up until about 10:15 each night! She also has really become attached to Pastor Steve and lets us know that at church she wants to see "Pastor Steeeeve!" We had a Dr's appointment to check out how the new baby was doing and Annabelle was thrilled to get to hear the "puh puh" of the heart beat. When the Dr. asked her who was in mommy's belly, she said "Jesus!" Ha! We had to explain to him that it was VBS week and Jesus was on the brain!! Well, here are a few pics of this week, including our house progress. We close 1 month from today!

Annabelle and Nana in "Annabelle's house!"

The kitchen is looking good! I am most excited about this room!!

The sidewalk has been poured all around the house...it's just waiting for Annabelle to drive her car on it.

"Hey Daddy! I'm playing too!!"

"Hmm, was it the yellow or the red button daddy said to push?"

"Oh no, Thomas! There is a crack in the train track!" Granny Gusta was in the hospital this week and Annabelle certainly enjoyed getting to go see her and have her read her a book! She was very concerned about her and kept asking about her nose, because of the oxygen tube!

We went to Sears Appliance Outlet this week and bought a new washer and dryer!!! Yeah! Annabelle had the best time! I guess they don't get a whole lot of little bitty kids in an appliance store, so they really made over her! They gave her a big red balloon, and she squealed with excitement!

Number 1 Fan!

Annabelle is still quite the Cardinals enthusiast! She is now equipped with a Cardinals cheer outfit and pom poms so things will only get more intense! She still yells as them to score a home run. She also shouts "YES!" when they make a hit. She also likes saying "Pujols!" It certainly is entertaining to watch her even when the Cardinals are not playing well, which happens on occasion! We hope you enjoy her spirit!!